Blackbird Bazaar

stay tuned for excit­ing details!

Art lovers unite!! The Van­cou­ver Island School of Art (VISA) is host­ing its 5th annual Art Incog­nito fundrais­ing event on Sep­tem­ber 10th, and you will not want to miss it!

The Van­cou­ver Island School of Art is an accred­ited pri­vate post-secondary con­tem­po­rary art school estab­lished in 2004 by artist and edu­ca­tor, Wendy Welch. The phi­los­o­phy of the school is to offer art edu­ca­tion to adults with and with­out art experience.

Art Incog­nito is an intrigu­ing silent auc­tion where the work of known and unknown artists is avail­able for pur­chase with­out reveal­ing the artists’ names until the final hour.

Last year I made out like a ban­dit at the event. I walked away with 3 or 4 paint­ings that are now some of my favourites. It’s an unfor­get­table event that will not dis­ap­point you.

This gala event includes a wine and mar­tini bar, an array of food, live music and a chance to win a great door prize.

Gen­eral Admis­sion tick­ets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.  Ticket price includes food, enter­tain­ment and a $5 drink voucher.

The Van­cou­ver Island School of Art is located in an Arts & Crafts style her­itage school build­ing in the Quadra Vil­lage. Park­ing is available.

The Van­cou­ver Island School of Art is located at 2549 Quadra Street (between Bay and Hill­side). Park­ing is avail­able on site. Bus route #6 Quadra (get off at Bay).

See you there

Erin and Nic met years ago but were both unavail­able, so they remained friends and co-workers for almost four years.  It wasn’t until spring 2008 when they were both sin­gle that the sparks started fly­ing. As a close friend of Erin’s I can tell you that they were head over heels for each other from the first moment, and their con­nec­tion was obvi­ous to every­one around them.

Nic pro­posed to Erin at Whistler Moun­tain in Feb­ru­ary of 2009, and since they were expect­ing their first child the wed­ding plans didn’t offi­cially kick off until after Sophie was born. When Erin asked me to be both a brides­maid, and her wed­ding plan­ner I was imme­di­ately both thrilled and ner­vous. How would I man­age to stay impar­tial, how would I do brides­maid things and coor­di­nate things on the day of the wed­ding, would I enjoy being both a guest and an employee at the wed­ding? In the end all of my con­cerns and wor­ries amounted to lit­tle more than some extra multi-tasking, because the wed­ding went seam­lessly, the staff at the venue were amaz­ing, and Erin was a stun­ning and happy bride!

Erin & Nic chose the Inn at Lau­rel Point for their cer­e­mony and recep­tion, and all I can say about the hotel is that it truly is one of a kind! The ser­vice is impec­ca­ble, the sur­round­ings are unbeat­able, and the ter­race ball­room where the recep­tion was held  is incredible.

The girls started out the day at the crack of dawn (with a lit­tle help from some cham­pagne and OJ) to have their hair and makeup done in the bridal suite at the hotel. The guys were up even ear­lier to head out on the links for a short round of 9-holes and some male bonding.

The weather looked like it was going to be slightly unco­op­er­a­tive in the morn­ing, but the sun came out right as the bridal party was head­ing down the aisle. All 120 peo­ple in atten­dance breathed a col­lec­tive sigh of relief at their good fortune.

There was a break between cer­e­mony and recep­tion to allow for off loca­tion pho­tos with the bridal party. Emmy and Aaron from E/A Pho­tog­ra­phy took us all over town. We went up to the Gon­za­les Obser­va­tory, to the beach on Dal­las Rd., and to a side street in Fair­field so that the guys could pull out their long boards for a few action shots. The grooms­men are all ridicu­lously good long board­ers, and it made for some really awe­some shots.

Their wasn’t a dull moment at the recep­tion, there were funny and sen­ti­men­tal toasts, an “After­noon Delight” ser­e­nade from the grooms­men, a photo booth com­plete with props that kept every­one enter­tained all evening, and an incred­i­ble spread of food from the hotel.

Erin and Nic were a joy to work with, and I couldn’t have been hap­pier with the out­come of the evening.

VENDOR BREAKDOWN:

PLANNING: Annabel Lee Events | VENUE: Inn at Lau­rel Point | PHOTOGRAPHY: E/A Pho­tog­ra­phy | DECOR: Huff n’ Puff | DJ: Sen­sa­tional Sound | FLOWERS: Thrifty’s Admi­ral Walk | BRIDAL FASHION: Blush Bridal Bou­tique | PHOTOBOOTH: Island Pho­to­booth | LIMO: Regent Limos | CAKE/CUPCAKES: Inn at Lau­rel Point | OFFICIATOR: Don Gunn | HAIR: Tina Des­jardins | MAKEUP: Melanie Baird

Emmy and Aaron are awe­some pho­tog­ra­phers, and they have the abil­ity to make every­one feel at ease and com­fort­able with hav­ing their pho­tos taken. I can’t wait until the next time we work together! Enjoy the photos.

All images  copy­right  E/A Pho­tography do not copy do not reproduce!

This video cracks me up! Those Brits are so silly

I’m hav­ing a few updates and improve­ments done to the blog. Some of the posts and images might look funny or awk­ward for the next lit­tle while until every­thing is sorted out.

I love Slow Club. The sound of their voices in har­mony make every­thing bet­ter, so the song is going at the begin­ning of the post this week — you can lis­ten while you read.  “When I Go” — Slow Club

There are many options when it comes to wed­ding cakes. You can go the tra­di­tional tiered white cake with flow­ers or lit­tle pretty things made of icing, or you can have cup­cakes or mini cakelets, or you could go com­pletely off the wall and have a wild cake in the shape of an armadillo (Steel Mag­no­lias anyone?).

I am a big fan of non-traditional wed­ding cakes. I would prob­a­bly lean more towards the armadillo than a big white cake, so when I browse the cake gallery at Pas­sion for Cakes I am imme­di­ately smit­ten. Corina is like Victoria’s own Duff Goldman.

Some­times I wish I weren’t so tall — not when I need to get some­thing down from a top shelf of course, but when it comes to wear­ing heels it would be nice if I were just a wee bit shorter. I’m pretty com­fort­able in a 3-inch heel, but a 4-inch heel I have some issues with. I love look­ing at pic­tures of nice shoes, and dream­ing of the day when all the men in the world grow to be at least 6’3″!! Let us drool over these for a moment:

There are so many des­i­cions to make when plan­ning your wed­ding, and I’m not even talk­ing about the big ones — like choos­ing the dude, the brides­maids, and the chicken or fish. I’m talk­ing about music, and shoes, and flow­ers, and jew­elry… it can be over­whelm­ing to even the most deci­sive per­son. This is a new sec­tion of the blog that I’ll be fea­tur­ing on a regaular basis. I’ll track down some of my favourite trends in style and decor, and I’ll even throw a killer song into the mix (some­times as ideas for the first dance, reces­sional, grand entrance — or just my own pure enjoyment).

Shoes, shoes, shoes… they don’t have to be white! In fact, since every­thing else you’ll be wear­ing tends to lean on the more tra­di­tional side, why not lean to the funky, wild, and awe­some side with your shoes. We have a few really great shoe retail­ers in Vic­to­ria, and E/A Pho­tog­ra­phy just did a style fea­ture on one of my favourties — She She Shoes.

Photo credit — E/A Photography

Coun­try Chic has def­i­nitely made a come­back this year, and it’s evi­dent in the flower choices, table and room decor, and even bridal fash­ion. Mason jars are being used every­where, and I love it!

Choos­ing table and room decor can be tricky, espe­cially if you have a room that already has very bold colour themes. I really like the colour combo of grey & yel­low, and it’s been pop­ping up all over the wed­ding blo­gos­phere! Linens, shoes, flow­ers, even cloth­ing. Grey is such a strong colour, but it allows you to build on it and brighten the decor with­out being overwhelming.

Well that wraps up the first edi­tion of “Styl­ish Sun­day”. I’d like to sign off with a lit­tle help from my friend Paul Simon.

Con­grat­u­la­tions are in order for the new Mr & Mrs! Gabri­ola Island was host to 30 guests from across the coun­try who came to share the day with Nick and Lau­ren, as they tied the knot on a grassy knoll over­look­ing the ocean. The day ran smoothly with­out any hitches or holdups, and the ven­dors were fabulous!

I took just a few (ama­teur) pho­tos, and will post the real ones in a few weeks when Laura from Tay­lored Pho­tog­ra­phy has put the fin­ish­ing touches on them.

I met Raina and Pravin via tele­phone in early 2010, and I knew instantly that it was going to be a fun wed­ding. The colour choices were bold and right up my alley (bright pink, yel­low, and orange), and they’d picked a beau­ti­ful venue (Olympic View Golf Club).

Raina and Pravin live in Dal­las Texas, but Raina grew up in BC and her Mom lives in Vic­to­ria, so it seemed like the per­fect place for them to tie the knot!

The day started out a lit­tle bit rainy, and turned out to be quite unco­op­er­a­tive in the weather depart­ment, but it didn’t put too much of a damper on the day. A slight change of cer­e­mony venue — a move from the putting green, to the gor­geous floor to ceil­ing win­dowed room inside, and a warm up break dur­ing the photo ses­sion, and all was well in the land of the wedding.

The girls began the morn­ing at Fish Hair Salon, and then moved on to Raina’s mom’s house to put on the fin­ish­ing touches. I picked up the beau­ti­ful flower hair­pieces from Colleen at Fox­glove Flow­ers and met them at the salon, before run­ning over to the Bernard Calle­baut out­let in Broad­mead Vil­lage to pick up the deli­cious wed­ding favours. When I arrived at the golf course, the dec­o­rat­ing was well under­way. Sandy from Details BC was up in the ceil­ing hang­ing the colour­ful paper lanterns, and her assis­tant was tying the chairs with their fuch­sia chair sashes.

I love pink, bright pink to be spe­cific. In fact, i just painted an entire wall in my kitchen the bright­est pink you could pos­si­bly imag­ine, so I can’t tell you how smit­ten I was with the colours at this wedding.

The decor fea­tured bright orange organza over­lays on the tables, white chair cov­ers with pink sashes, pink, orange, and yel­low paper lanterns on the ceil­ing, incred­i­ble cen­ter­pieces made with every flower imag­in­able, table num­bers named after Raina’s favourite design­ers, and beau­ti­ful white sails hang­ing from the ceiling.

The after­noon and evening went off with­out a hitch. The staff at the golf course are pro­fes­sional and know how to make a wed­ding run smoothly. Many of the guests were from out of town, and even though the weather wasn’t as good as it could have been dur­ing their stay in Vic­to­ria, they all had such nice things to say about the wed­ding and our city. All in all — a com­plete success!

Ven­dors:

PLANNING: Annabel Lee Events | VENUE: Olympic View Golf Club |  FLOWERS: Fox­glove Flow­ers |  OFFICIATOR: Sherry-Lynn East­home |  DECOR: Details BC | HAIR/MAKEUP: Fish Hair Salon |  DJ: Sen­sa­tional Sound | LIMO: LA Limo | PHOTOGRAPHY: Orange Frog Stu­dio | FAVOURS: Bernard Calle­baut | CEREMONY MUSIC: Duo d’Amour | CAKE: Cakes Galore

I  had the plea­sure of work­ing with Melanie from Orange Frog Stu­dio, who took hun­dreds of amaz­ing pho­tos, and even toughed it out in the blus­tery side­ways rain con­di­tions to cap­ture the moments.

Enjoy the photos!

The won­der­fully tal­ented, charm­ing, and fab­u­lous Vic­to­ria pho­tog­ra­pher Karen McNeil has fea­tured Annabel Lee Events on her blog this week. Be sure to check it out!